It's been several years since the typical "home" computer became powerful enough to handle the demands of audio recording and post-production-and indeed, many recording studios are primarily nice computer systems and audio interfaces connected in acoustically appropriate rooms. PreSonus recently introduced a new version of its Studio One Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software, and we're taking a quick look at it in this issue of Church Production Magazine.
Studio One has far more features than a short review can do justice; therefore, I'm going to focus on what I feel are the aspects of the program that most church audio techs would be interested in. The biggest use of this software in the technical production side of a church's ministry would be to multi-track record services and events, or multi-track record a song for a service or production, and mix them down into a good stereo recording for podcasting or CD production. Other features, such as MIDI recording and editing, I'll leave as an exercise for the reader.
The purpose of a DAW is to enable the recording and mixing of multiple tracks of audio down to (typically) a single stereo audio file. Most DAW's present an interface much like a standard audio mixer, with a track view reminiscent of a video editing application as well, showing the waveforms of each track.
Reviewer observations
Studio One, available for both Windows and Mac, has a nice, clean interface that feels more like using real hardware instead of software emulations. The plug-in effects come up with a nice "front panel" with knobs and buttons, which would put those audio techs who are more comfortable with audio systems than computers at ease. In fact, it's clean and simple enough that I rarely needed to consult the manual for basic functions, even when getting started for the first time.
The software has the familiar DAW timeline interface sported by most multi-track software, and also an audio mixer view that makes level, pan, and effects adjustments more familiar and simple. In addition, Studio One provides automation functions, where the software will record movements of controls such as faders and "play back" those recorded changes as that part of the project is played. This enables very sophisticated mixing, as you can focus on just one track or function at a time, recording the changes desired, before moving onto another track.
Studio One also fully supports recording directly in the application, and does it well. I've found that some audio programs can be a little tricky in setting up what audio input to record from, sometimes requiring you to go into the Windows audio control panel to make changes-particularly when using audio hardware beyond the basic audio card built into the computer. Not so with Studio One; it recognized my PreSonus Firepod 10-channel interface right off, and I was able to pick which input to record from directly from the channel track on the timeline. That was refreshing.
Most professional recording resolutions and bit depths are supported. I recorded at 96 kHz and 24-bits for the sample song I worked with, and had no problem recording or playing back at this level.
When doing multi-track recording, it's quite common to want to retake a flubbed section without re-recording the entire track. Studio One makes this a breeze-you set markers at the start and end positions of the section you want to re-record, turn on the "auto-punch" option, and set the playback position prior to where you want to re-record. Press the record button and Studio One starts playing back the song, including the track you want to re-record. The musician starts playing along, and when the "in" point is reached, the track to be recorded switches from playback mode to record mode until it hits the end marker. This makes "punching in" for recording a new take for a section of a track extremely simple and accurate-I loved this feature.
Extras worth noting
Another nice option when doing multi-track recording is the comp'ing feature. You can record several complete takes of one track, each appearing on a separate "layer" in the timeline. Then, using the audio playback tool, you can quickly "audition" segments of the different takes, and easily select and promote that segment to the main track. This lets you piece together the best parts of each take into a new composited track.
But probably the coolest feature is the copy of Melodyne that comes with the program. Melodyne is pitch-correction software that lets you take a shaky vocal part, for example, and actually fix the pitch seamlessly, note by note. It is just amazing. Melodyne that comes with Studio One is the entry-level version, but you can upgrade to another version that actually lets you do pitch correction to a polyphonic source, note by note, within a chord. I did not have the option of playing with that, but I've heard from people who own it that it works quite well.
The program never aborted or exhibited any problems that caused it to be unstable. The only quirks I found were if you have the mixer window maximized, the automation controls along the bottom edge of the window aren't easy to work with-the drop-down window that appears doesn't "drop up" instead, and thus isn't really usable. And when it detects clipping during the mix-down export process, it doesn't tell you where the clipping occurred-just that it did occur. A time reference would be helpful in this warning. And lastly, there's no help file or context sensitive help, but just a PDF user's manual. A real help system would make learning the more sophisticated aspects of the program easier.
Bottom line: Studio One was rock-solid, was easy to learn and use, and produced excellent sounding results. A free demo is available on the company's website. And there are many more features to the program than are listed here. At $399, it is well worth looking at if you do multi-track recording and mixing at your church.
